The present disclosure relates generally to the field of securely sharing data between various software applications running on computing devices or systems.
There are many applications that host and/or render user data. These applications could be anything from an email client to a PDF reader. Data exchange and data sharing between these applications is common. Unfortunately, data is not always trustworthy. At some point, most applications, such as email clients, interact with sensitive data, or data that is risky and/or harmful to business continuity. Many of these applications also share data with other applications but sharing sensitive or malicious data between applications helps spread malware and reduces the security posture caused by a reduced control for this data. Some applications have sophisticated techniques that can determine if there is risk associated with the data being interacted with. However, at present that determination of risk is never passed down from one application to another. Hence, even if a sensitive or malicious piece of data is found in an email client, for example, and quarantined, the data might be passed down to a web browser, for example on the same user device, and wreak havoc.